help clear the table of yarn and crochet tools. Elise seemed off in dreamland as she added a red tassel to the vampire cowl she’d made. Adele rolled her eyes at the black-and-white stripes done in half double crochet, which Elise insisted resembled fangs. Eduardo let out a tired sigh as he set down the white thread cowl he was making. He’d added an Irish crochet flower motif as decoration. Between all of this, Adele kept giving me knowing looks and dropping little hints like the mission was a go. I was so close to telling her to forget it, but I knew that even if I did, she’d go ahead with her plan anyway.
Adele wasn’t happy with the cowls everyone was making. She thought they ought to be all the same design, but done in different colors. CeeCee cut in and said at this point, she was just glad everybody was making something. After dinner she brought out the collection box and it did still look a little thin. “What happened to Kelly’s pieces, again?” CeeCee said. Dinah, Adele and I all started to talk at once, reminding her the shoplifter hooligans had taken them.
“It was just vandalism,” I said with disgust. “They probably threw all the stuff in a trash can somewhere. After all, the e-reader turned up again. They were really just out for the thrill, not the actual goods.”
CeeCee asked what we were going to do about packing up the items we sold. Dinah said Commander agreed to donate small shopping bags with stickers that said Tarzana Hookers on them.
“I love it,” CeeCee said and wanted to know when she could see them. I explained we still had to pick them up.
The meeting ended quickly, mostly because Adele kept saying there was something important she had to do. Adele, Dinah and I walked out last. As soon as we were outside, Adele pulled off the pink fuzzy vest she’d been wearing and I saw she was dressed in all black. She pulled out a black hat and put it on. Somehow Adele had confused the detective look with a ninja look. She pointed her foot, displaying her black cloth shoes and demonstrated a few karate kicks.
“Wish me luck,” she said as she got into her Matrix and headed to the location.
An hour later, when Adele hadn’t shown up, I couldn’t help myself. I started pacing across Dinah’s living room. What was taking Adele so long? Even though she’d objected, I’d coached her on what to say. All she really had to do, was start talking with North about Kelly and say she knew about their thing. And then ask why he hadn’t mentioned it to anybody. If she got the kind of reaction I thought she would, I was going to find a way to tell Detective Heather.
At last we heard footsteps coming toward the house and then someone rushing up the front stairs, followed by pounding on the door.
I was at the door before Dinah could even get out of her chair. “Well?” I said as I pulled it open. When I looked at Adele, I sucked in my breath so fast I almost choked on it. She was holding a gun on a chopstick.
The “Well?” turned into a “What?”
“Shut the door, shut the door,” Adele said as she rushed inside. Dinah had joined me at the doorway by now and we both stood back giving Adele wide berth with the gun. She looked around the room hurriedly and finally deposited the gun on the coffee table with a loud clatter. I held my breath afraid it would go off, but thankfully it didn’t.
Adele threw herself into the new chair Dinah had recently added. It was leather on a wood frame and had a slight capacity to rock. Adele made it rock for all it was worth, while fluttering her eyes and fanning herself with her hand.
“What happened?” I demanded. “What did you do this time?”
Adele sat forward and leveled her eyes at me. “I took care of things for you, Pink. The sign of a good freelance detective is that you improvise. I didn’t need that silly average Joe Shmoe book to figure that out.”
Adele knew she had the spotlight and she was going to milk it for all it was worth. She made a pretense of removing her hat and smoothing her hair and adjusting her clothes as she prepared to speak.
“I did just as I said I would. I hung out with